Two startups impress investors, receive seed fund at August Fest

August Fest, the two-day platform for showcasing startups, garnered a lot of eyeballs but did not meet expectations in terms of helping startups get the seed fund.

At least 12 startups were expected to get the Rs 10 lakh seed fund each, but only two – BigLeap Digital and YAWP –succeeded. Of the 140 applications, 25 had been shortlisted to make the pitch at the event.

At last year’s edition, four of the nine startups, which made the pitch, succeeded in raising the seed fund.

“We were expecting many startups to be selected for the seed fund, but only two have been announced,” said Ramesh Loganathan, MD of Progress Software and one of the organisers.

The investor community has asked some of the startups to comeback after some time, which can be used for finding a co-founder or better the prototype or comply with technical or organisational requirements to be eligible for funding.

Fifty investors, 10 angel and seed funding companies, 60 startups took part in the August Fest.

“Validation of our idea is more important for us than funding,” said Gautham of YAWP Mag, a social media-related project. “India is a land of problems. Each of them can be converted into a billion dollar business opportunity,” said Vishal Gon­dal, angel investor, foun­der and CEO of Indiagames.

Sukanth Panigrahy, art director and production designer, stressed the need for waste management and said he used electronic and plastic waste to make art objects.

“We don’t want aspiring and budding entrepreneurs to be bogged down with the legal, accounting, office space management, platform, mentoring support issues. This fest is organised as a precursor to the proposed India’s biggest incubation centre T-Hub,” Suresh Perugu, co-founder of eat, sleep and drink startups, a startup that organised the event.

Ideas camp was also organised for third year engineering students and young professionals. Selected five ideas will be nurtured over 18 months to be transformed into startups.